Orchid conservation through seed banking: ins and outs.

摘要

Some conservation strategies set aside large areas for nature reserves. Native plants, including orchids, are collected from these reserves for scientific study by public and private foundations, and seeds are collected and stored. This last strategy, seed banking, appears to be the simplest to execute and the most economical. Problems arise, however, regarding the most efficient methods for storing orchid seed. Such problems involve temperature, seed moisture, and seed survivability in each type of storage. One advantage is that several pods of half sibling plants may be stored and variability preserved in a very small package. On the other hand, orchid seeds, especially seeds of tropical orchids, appear to have short-lived seeds and thus do not survive to long-term storage..